How to Stay Sharp in Old Age
A.A. Newton
A.A. Newton
Quote:Finally, and perhaps most promisingly, there is mounting evidence that social isolation is a major risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. A 2017 Lancet Commission report estimates that social isolation accounts for up to 2 percent of lifetime dementia risk—just as much as hypertension. Though it’s a relatively new area of research, more and more studies are exploring the intervention potential of increased socialization. To learn more, I spoke with the author of one of these studies: Dr. Hiroko Dodge, principal investigator of Oregon Health & Science University’s I-CONECT project.
In a June 2015 Alzheimer’s & Dementia paper, Dr. Dodge et. al. designed a clinical trial to test the effect of “naturalistic human contact” on cognitive function in elderly (80 years, on average) adults. About half of the participants video-chatted with trained interviewers 30 minutes a day for six weeks; the others did not. Compared with baseline scores and the control group, the video chatters showed improvement in semantic fluency (being able to find and produce words in a certain category) and psychomotor speed (reaction time). The only statistically significant results were observed in subjects with normal cognition—i.e., no impairment or dementia—but subjects with MCI still showed improvement relative to controls. The study was considered a success, and a larger-scale follow-up trial is currently ongoing.
Dr. Dodge believes that the human element of video chat is key to their observed results. In the conversation sessions, interviewers were trained to prioritize eye contact and back-and-forth conversation, two important aspects of face-to-face contact that socially isolated people don’t get enough of. Plus, video chat is accessible to the people who stand to benefit from it the most: physically and socially isolated adults. I asked Dr. Dodge if FaceTiming or video chatting with isolated elderly relatives was a good thing to do regularly. “Definitely,” she said, explaining that regular face-to-face conversations could improve cognitive compensation mechanisms—the brain’s ability to work around cognitive impairments.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell
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